20160826

SUPERMAN

Sarah Douglas played Ursa, a visitor from the planet Krypton in the 1978 motion picture 'Superman' and the 1980 sequel, 'Superman II: The Adventure Continues'. "I had no idea who Superman was," Sarah told James H Burns in 1981. "Apart from knowing what he looked like, I knew nothing of the Superman mythos. We didn't have him that much here (in the U.K.). I recall seeing a little bit of 'Superman' on the '50s TV series, but as far as I know, we certainly didn't have him in our comic strips."

Sarah spent 29 weeks working with Richard Donner in the 'Superman' movie and 10 weeks working with Richard Lester in the 'Superman II' movie. She recounted, "The two men were very different … Lester was just far too technical. Unfortunately, I never got to know Donner that well, maybe because I didn’t entirely understand what he was trying to aim for in the film. I comprehended Lester more.

"Donner was determined that Ursa should be asexual and have no relationship with (General) Zod (played by Terence Stamp). Lester wanted her very obviously to have some kind of contact with Zod – not sexual contact, but to have it where the audience would clearly understand that Ursa wants to please Zod. Lester also encouraged the idea of having her be a sexual kind of object. He wanted Ursa to be someone that everyone – from the kids to the granddads – would get off on.

"We even designed the costume so that it actually shows some form and bustline. They even gave me cleavage. When we originally shot the Ursa scenes my little body was 'suppressed', as they say. I wasn't annoyed at all because it gave me more of a chance to do something with Ursa. I believed that Ursa should be somebody that's turning everyone on. Donner told me that I shouldn't react – smile, laugh, or look angry – at anything. That was frustrating, because I was just literally a dummy.

"Richard Lester encouraged having Ursa show some human feeling. He allowed Ursa to have a little moment of ecstasy when she'd get angry. We couldn’t improvise, but Lester was marvelous in that he allowed us to work out our ideas. One very small example of that is Terence Stamp and I deciding to work on a way of walking together in an almost balletic fashion.

"There are instances where Zod and Ursa are very obviously walking in unison. In the film, there's something just a little bit strange about that, which is what we wanted. Lester gave us time to work those sort of things out. Lester's only condition was you had to get it right on the first take, because he wouldn't give you another crack at it. So Lester's permissiveness worked both ways. It was frustrating to only get one take to do something in, but on the other hand, it was because of Lester that I got to develop my character.

"Lester went for much more of a comic touch in this one ('Superman II'). Donner had been determined that we should play it serious, which was very difficult. Lester encouraged us to be more tongue-in-cheek. 'Superman II' is much more humorous. Although Donner was funnier on the set, the actual film humor seemed to come more from Lester."